I recently bought Marcia Lewandowski's Folk Mittens with the idea to knit a pair of Gotland Island mittens in red and white (and a little bit of green). I overestimated my skill, or my level of patience, or both. Left with oodles of fingering weight wool, I decided that no one I know would appreciate a pair of socks that have to be handwashed, no matter how soft or pretty said socks might be.

But, good news! There are people out there actually LOOKING FOR 100% wool socks! If you're a knitter with too much time to knit and not enough people to spread the finished product to, check out this website: http://childrenincommon.org/. This group raises money and collects donations for orphanages in the former USSR. They ask that knitted garments be at least 80% animal fiber, as many of the orphanages are poorly heated or unheated.

I'm going to see just how many pairs of wee socks I can get out of nine balls of Knit Pick's "Palette." I'm not sure I'm going to be able to tolerate knitting as many socks as that might be, but I'm willing to take a stab at it.